(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CARRIE")
PIPER LAURIE: (As Margaret White) He's going to laugh at these (ph). They're all going to laugh at you.
SISSY SPACEK: (As Carrie White) No, he's not going to laugh at me.
LAURIE: (As Margaret White) Look, it's not too late.
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Fifty years later, nobody's laughing at the cultural legacy of Brian De Palma's "Carrie," which first haunted theaters in November of 1976.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CARRIE")
AMY IRVING: (As Sue Snell, shouting) Somebody, open this door. Open this door now.
SCHMITZ: That low-key film marked the first of dozens of Stephen King novels and short stories that have been adapted for the big screen. So on this week's Cineplexity, we are talking Stephen King movies with two of his biggest fans, NPR editor Barrie Hardymon and Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Welcome to you both.
BARRIE HARDYMON, BYLINE: Hi.
LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
SCHMITZ: So we have had multiple adaptations of "Carrie" over the years. It's about a girl who uses telekinesis - and if you don't know what that is, it's sort of like the Force - to exact violent revenge against kids who are bullying her. What is it about "Carrie" in particular that Hollywood keeps returning to, Linda?
HOLMES: Well, I think the easiest answer is maybe the idea of this literal blood bath that takes place at a prom. A prom is such a rite of passage that, for a lot of people, is also filled with pain and feelings of rejection. So it's such a good storytelling flourish that it's set in that place. More substantively, I think, in terms of the story, there's a lot of power in this tale of this bullied and beaten down person whose rage just overwhelms her to the point where there are these horrible consequences not only for the people who treated her so cruelly, but for everybody who's anywhere nearby. So, you know, it's a story about the anger of this young girl as she passes through puberty. And I think, particularly when this book was published and when the first movie came out, that felt like a really underexplored phenomenon.
SCHMITZ: Barrie?
HARDYMON: For me, it's that the story kind of regenerates every generation of teenagers - bullying, adolescent humiliation, religious repression, the terrors of puberty.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CARRIE")
LAURIE: (As Margaret White) You're a woman now.
SPACEK: (As Carrie White) Why didn't you tell me, Ma? (Screaming, inaudible).
LAURIE: (As Margaret White) And God made Eve from the rib of Adam. And Eve was weak and loosed the raven on the world.
SCHMITZ: There's a little Carrie in all of us.
HARDYMON: Yeah, exactly. We never really age out of it. But more importantly, I think that each era's "Carrie" sort of becomes a time capsule about what adults are currently afraid of with teenagers. So, you know, the 1976...
SCHMITZ: (Laughter).
HARDYMON: ...Version is kind of about, like, the cafeteria and the gym and those - like, those cruelties that, you know...
SCHMITZ: Right.
HARDYMON: ...Our parents maybe experienced. And the 2013 is kind of gestures at cyberbullying and, you know, viral video. And then the most recent one is, you know, just social media, straight up brings us into the present.
SCHMITZ: So this was an early adaptation of Stephen King's story. I mean, he - you know, he as a writer came up in the 1970s and '80s when a lot of others were already, of course, working in the horror genre. What makes his work different?
HOLMES: Well, for one thing, he's just incredibly prolific. Not only has he been writing somewhere on the order of a novel or two a year since the mid-1970s, basically, but he has a ton of novellas and short story collections he's even written about writing. And his work is really...
HARDYMON: Move over, Joyce Carol Oates (laughter).
HOLMES: Yeah, and it's - exactly. And his work is really varied in terms of its tone and in terms of genre. Some of his best-loved adaptations are not horror.
SCHMITZ: Right.
HOLMES: "Shawshank Redemption" is not horror. "Stand By Me" is not really horror. So for filmmakers, I think there's an appeal to these stories that are kind of shocking and hooky, but also really deeply felt.
HARDYMON: I totally agree, Linda. He sort of offers these demons that are, you know, alcoholism and drug abuse and suppressed trauma. But I think the thing that really set him apart from his peers of that time is just how normal his horror is. Like, as Linda was saying, Anne Rice was writing about, you know, sexy vampires in a mansion, and Dean Koontz was writing these international conspiracy paperbacks. And King was just writing about, like, people. They weren't in exotic locations. They were in, you know, Maine mill towns and vans that had, like, Grateful Dead stickers on them. So it's totally recognizable. And his monsters sort enter the world that we know of mortgages and...
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
HARDYMON: ...Resentments and...
SCHMITZ: It's universal.
HARDYMON: Exactly.
SCHMITZ: Right. It's something that we all (inaudible).
HARDYMON: The terror lands because the backdrop is something we all see.
SCHMITZ: So let's start with you, Barrie. What is your favorite Stephen King adaptation?
HARDYMON: One of the movies that really epitomizes King for me most, I think, is "Stand By Me"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAND BY ME")
RICHARD DREYFUSS: (As The Writer) We had all followed the Ray Brower story very closely because he was a kid our age. Three days before, he had gone out to pick blueberries, and nobody'd seen him since.
HARDYMON: ...Which is not, you know, a horror movie. The story really starts its life as a - it's kind of horror adjacent.
SCHMITZ: Absolutely, yeah.
HARDYMON: It's novella that he wrote in 1982. And the inciting event is extremely relatable. It's - the four boys are hiking and - to find a dead body.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAND BY ME")
RIVER PHOENIX: (As Chris Chambers) I bet you anything that if we find him, we'll get our pictures in the paper.
COREY FELDMAN: (As Teddy Duchamp) Yeah, yeah, we can even be on TV.
PHOENIX: (As Chris Chambers) Sure.
FELDMAN: (As Teddy Duchamp) We'll be heroes.
HARDYMON: It's this iconic childhood event, you know, wandering down railroad tracks in a small town, kind of - you know, we can all see that. And the supernatural is really absent entirely, but he doesn't need it because the monster is each boy's home life, you know?
SCHMITZ: Right.
HARDYMON: Gordie's parents are frozen in grief over his dead brother. Another kid's father is a - has a PTSD-fueled breakdown at the asylum that he burned down.
SCHMITZ: Right.
HARDYMON: You know, so the body that they're looking for is almost beside the point and is sort of - is more what has happened to them. And I think the real dangers in the movie are, you know, this sort of adult belief that we find toward the end that some kids are disposable. And that is, you know, the most horrifying thing of all, it turns out.
SCHMITZ: Wow. Linda?
HOLMES: Yeah, "Stand By Me" is an extraordinary film. You know, "Shawshank's" an extraordinary film. I have a real soft spot for "Misery."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MISERY")
KATHY BATES: (As Annie Wilkes) I'm your No. 1 fan. There's nothing to worry about. You're going to be just fine. I'll take good care of you.
HOLMES: So "Misery" is the story of a woman played by Kathy Bates who captures and holds prisoner her favorite novelist, who's played by James Caan, because she wants him to write the next book in the series that she loves exactly the way she wants it, which is one of Stephen King's kind of many ruminations on the demons of writers and the demons attached to writing itself. It's clear to me that he had had a lot of experience with very enthusiastic fans. I think the Kathy Bates performance in that film is so...
SCHMITZ: Oh, she's so horrifying.
HOLMES: ...Wonderful. And it is so funny and strange and terrifying.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MISERY")
BATES: (As Annie Wilkes) Misery Chastain cannot be dead.
JAMES CAAN: (As Paul Sheldon) Annie, in 1871, women often died in childbirth. But her spirit is the important thing, and Misery's spirit is still alive.
BATES: (As Annie Wilkes, yelling) I don't want her spirit. I want her. And you murdered her.
SCHMITZ: So here's a question for you both. Is there an adaptation of a Stephen King story or book that may be not be as popular, but that you really liked? Barrie?
HARDYMON: I love "Dolores Claiborne," which is...
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
HARDYMON: ...Another Kathy Bates star turn.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOLORES CLAIBORNE")
BATES: (As Dolores Claiborne) I guess you want to know somebody's life, you look at their hands (ph).
HARDYMON: It's very dark. It's very much about domestic abuse. Again, it's a really good example, but just kind of a smaller movie of, you know, the horrors of everyday life.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOLORES CLAIBORNE")
BATES: (As Dolores Claiborne) Guess what, Joe? I ain't tired anymore. Better sit back down, Joe. You don't want this in your head.
SCHMITZ: Linda, how about you?
HOLMES: Yeah, you know, it's interesting that Barrie mentions "Dolores Claiborne" because the one that came to mind for me was "Gerald's Game," which is actually tied story-wise to "Dolores Claiborne." They are related stories. But "Gerald's Game" is about a woman, played by Carla Gugino, who goes with her husband - her abusive husband - to a remote cabin. He handcuffs her to the bed for some sort of fantasy, and then he dies. So she's stuck.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GERALD'S GAME")
BRUCE GREENWOOD: (As Gerald) You tried that.
CARLA GUGINO: (As Jessie) I know.
GREENWOOD: (As Gerald) You can pull till your wrists break. You're not getting out of those cuffs.
HOLMES: Although it has some elements of visions and things like that, it's primarily this story of - how is this woman going to free herself? They made this movie for Netflix. It's a really gripping story and really, really simple, which I like a lot.
HARDYMON: Simple premise.
SCHMITZ: That is NPR's Linda Holmes and Barrie Hardymon. Thank you to you both.
HARDYMON: Thanks.
HOLMES: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
